annotated » Hebden Bridge Chess Club

Hot Toddy

2015-16 Season Journal 3 Responses »

Oct 302015

What could be better at this time of year as the night's draw in and the temperature drops, than a Hot Toddie? This image is used under Creative Commons terms and sourced from Kenn Wilson's Flickr photo stream

What could be better at this time of year as the night’s draw in and the temperature drops, than a Hot Toddy? This image is used under Creative Commons terms and sourced from Kenn Wilson’s Flickr photo stream

There have been some very one-sided results in Calderdale 1 so far this season. I’d like to begin this post with a rather arresting set of statistics. After three rounds of competition there have been two 5 — 0 score lines; one 4½ — ½ and three 4 — 1’s. This from just ten fixtures. Moreover there have been no 3 — 2 results at all so far, though we have had a single drawn match. At the equivalent stage of last season there had been no fewer than six 3 — 2’s; five 3½ — 1½ ‘s and a drawn match. That’s right, no-one had won by as much as a 4 — 1 score line after three rounds of fixtures.

What could this sudden change of equilibrium signify? I’m sure readers will have their own opinions on this but when I additionally consider that last season League 2 dropped down to a six team format from seven in 2013-14 and that this season Courier have been forced to withdraw a team from the league while Brighouse have played two of their three matches with just four players you can probably see what sort of conclusion I’m drawing myself. The Calderdale Evening Chess League needs more active players if it is not to wither and die over the next few years. When I consider the number of Calderdale resident players who have stopped playing in the League in recent seasons I wonder why it’s happening and what we need to do to get them back again.

But let’s not dwell on my gloomy outlook. We’ve enjoyed three or four phenomenal years of closely fought league action (especially in league 1) so perhaps our expectations have swollen too much. Now let’s get to the action from this week’s encounters and begin with the undoubted success story of the season so far — Todmorden chess club.

Todmorden ‘A’ finally took possession of the league title last season after years of getting very close. They look like they’ll take some stopping again this year as they have stormed to some increasingly impressive score lines. First they beat their ‘B’ team 3 — 1, then they beat their close rivals Halifax ‘A’ 4 — 1 and this week they travelled to Halifax ‘B’ who they drowned in whitewash. They’ve only lost one board and drawn two so far this season. Impressive stuff.

However, let’s also pause to celebrate the heroics of Todmorden ‘B’ who are currently sitting in third place in the league having defeated Hebden Bridge ‘A’ at home in round two before defeating Brighouse away by a whopping ½ — 4½! Even though Brighouse did their best to help out the visitors by defaulting board 5, Tod were out-graded on all the remaining boards but board 3. However, wins by Neil Suttie, Mick Connor and Mike Huett saw them turn in a dominant performance. Next up for Tod ‘B’ is Hudderfield at home. That ought to be a stern test of their form if Huddersfield bring a decent side up the valley.

Now to Hebden Bridge ‘A’s trip to Halifax ‘A’. Having gone down in somewhat tragic fashion against Tod ‘B’ last time out, Hebden were wounded even further by the loss of Pete Leonard and Nick Sykes for this tough encounter. Happily, they were able to welcome the return of Andy Bak on board 1 to bolster the line-up and the other vacancy was covered by Neil Bamford on board 5.

Halifax had a strong line up of Somerset, Ursal, Porter, Velosa and Scurfield and thus they out-graded Hebden on every single board. Bearing this in mind perhaps it was no surprise to see a final match score of 4 — 1 to the home side. However, the score board masks the reality of a tremendously hard fought match that probably represented Hebden’s best effort of the season so far.

Rated nearly 30 points below Sam Scurfield, Neil Bamford was statistically the underdog in his game. In fact he gained a very reasonable position out of the opening on the Black side of an Italian Game and only a subsequent error of judgement early in the middle game, costing him two pawns, spelt the end of the evening for him.

The other four games were extremely hard fought and very tight until late in the evening. On board 1 Andy Bak once again wade into some of the most theoretical and complicated waters of opening theory when he agreed to discuss the monstrously double-edged Botvinnik Semi-Slav with Bill Somerset. The two have passed this way before evidently and Andy was the winner. Readers will have to judge for themselves what on earth was going on in this game because your commentator doesn’t have a clue. Suffice to say that Andy won.

On board 4 Carlos Velosa and Martin Syrett scrapped it out in a typically murky and chaotic game. Martin appeared to be winning at some point. Then suddenly, he was losing. Carlos seemed convinced that he had everything under control all along. Again who knows? Your correspondent was by this stage deeply embroiled in his own encounter.

Hebden’s hopes were finally snuffed out when Richard Porter saw off the determined effort of Andy Leatherbarrow. In this game too the Hebden player seemed to at least equalise from the opening and was even generating some pressure. At some stage though, Andy lost and exchange and slowly but surely Richard stabilised his position cashed in his chips to win the game.

This just left the drama of the Ursal versus Shapland game to play itself out on board 2. Dave took a draw from Darwin using the Semi-Slav himself in the corresponding fixture last season. This time around he decided not to repeat the line again in favour of the offbeat Albin Counter Gambit which is a recent addition to his repertoire. Darwin selected a fairly modest line in response and then allowed a variation in which he exchanged the queens off and held on to his extra pawn but allowed Dave good positional compensation.

The ‘Albin pawn’ on d4 proved to be a thorn in Darwin’s side as he struggled to activate his pieces. Eventually Dave was able to open up the position for his bishop pair and at that point Darwin’s position started to go downhill. As always though Darwin fought tenaciously and clung on. Dave possibly missed a few small improvements in his attack but ultimately allowed his opponent to give back his extra pawn in order to reach a knight and pawns versus bishop and pawns ending. At first it looked like Dave still had an advantage but, practically, it was very hard to make progress. Darwin offered a draw but by this stage it was clear Hebden would need a win to have any chance of even drawing the match. Dave played on but slowly, Darwin improved his position and as the players reached their last few minutes on the clock Darwin finally outplayed Dave and collected a full point.

The final match score sheet looked like this:

Halifax ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘A’
W.Somerset 0 — 1 A.Bak
D.Ursal 1 — 0 D.Shapland
R.Porter 1 — 0 A.Leatherbarrow
C.Velosa 1 — 0 M.Syrett
S.Scurfield 1 — 0 N.Bamford
4 — 1

There are just two games in the viewer today but I think readers will find them both of interest, particularly the chaotic game between Bill Somerset and Andy Bak. My thanks to Andy for taking the time to annotate this and send it in.

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In the beginning

2015-16 Season Journal 10 Responses »

Sep 302015

God initiates he ultimate ‘kick-off’ in this famous Sistene Chapel painting. Photo sourced from ideacreamanuelaPps Flickr photo stream

It all started again last Monday. Yes, the Calderdale Evening chess league is back as League 1 got underway last week and League 2 this. For those of you who weren’t with us last season, (or have very short memories) Todmorden ‘A’ won the League 1 title from the previous year’s winners, Halifax ‘A’. These two teams look like strong contenders again this year along with perennial challengers Huddersfield and Hebden Bridge ‘A’.

In the closed season it was sad to hear about the demise of Courier ‘A’ who simply didn’t have enough players to field a team this season without decimating their league 2 ‘B’ team. The club made a decision to keep their League 2 side and the remaining Courier ‘A’ players are now representing other sides in the League.

Additionally, Hebden Bridge ‘B’ decided over the summer to decline promotion from league 2. Again this was on the grounds that they simply couldn’t sustain two League 1 sides. These two events meant that Belgrave got a reprieve on last season’s League 1 relegation and ‘stay up’. It also meant that Todmmorden ‘B’ stayed in the top flight as their ‘C’ team finished third in League 2 behind Hebden Bridge and champions Halifax ‘B’, who also got promoted.

First to last week’s League matches. It being the first fixtures of the season those clubs with two teams in division 1 got to play their local derbies with Todmorden ‘A’ hosting their ‘B’ team and Halifax ‘A’ doing the same with their second string side.

Let’s start with the champions then. Todmorden ‘A’ put out a strong line up against their ‘B’s although, for whatever reason, both sides only fielded four players. That said, the four players the ‘A’ team put out look like they would be powerful enough to default a board in every match this season and still be competitive. Messrs Hamer, Cook, Clarkson and new recruit from Courier, Dave Patrick comprise a formidable line up. One wonders who will play on board five! Todmorden ‘B’ put out a decent side too but they were no match for their counterparts as all got beaten excepting Mike Huett on board 2 who drew with Phil Cook.

Halifax ‘A’ showed that they too will need to be taken very seriously as they fielded a full five players against Halifax ‘B’. The only real change from their line up of the previous year was that Winston Williams was not present. However, five other regulars from last season were available and Bill Somerset, Darwin Ursal, Richard Porter and Sam Scurfield all won their games. Halifax ‘B’ got an excellent consolation point on board 4 though where Vivian Webster beat ‘A’ team captain Carlos Velosa.

Huddersfield have become the nearly men of recent years and have now gone four years without a title win despite always being in the mix at some stage in the season. They will certainly be in contention again this year if they continue to field a side as strong as they one they put out at Brighouse on Monday night. Wins for their new captain, Matthew Parsons, Nigel Hepworth and Robert Sutcliffe and a draw on board 1 between Mitchell Burke and Dennis Breen gave the visitors a comfortable win although Brighouse struck back on board 3 where Peter Hepworth lost to Nick Hudson.

That just leaves us to report on Hebden Bridge ‘A’s opening clash at home to Belgrave. Last season the Halifax club beat Hebden at home despite being out-rated and that loss cost Hebden dearly during the title run in. However, the home fixture was a comfortable win for Hebden Bridge in the second half of the season and they hoped that would be the case again as their players looked to shake off any rust that may have accumulated over the summer break.

On paper the tie looked quite well matched. On board 1 Hebden’s Andy Bak met Ian Hunter, both players are rated in the 170-180 bracket. On board’s 2 and 3 Hebden held rating advantages of 10-15 points as Nick Sykes and Dave Shapland both out rated their opponents, Karim Khan and Gordon Farrar respectively. But on boards 4 and 5 the gap narrowed again. Andy Leatherbarrow faced Angel Gonzalez on 4 and Martin Syrett met Les Johnson on 5.

The night began well for the hosts as all the home players gained comfortable positions from the opening and in one or two games, even more. Andy Leatherbarrow won two pawns for the exchange in his game while Nick Sykes benefitted from a berserk attack by Karim who thought he was giving up a piece for two pawns but overlooked an intermezzo that meant it was two pieces for two pawns!

On board 3 Dave also accumulated a solid advantage against Gordon as he chose to meet Black’s peculiar Philidor set up in a slightly more circumspect manner than he had done in their corresponding match-up last season. By maintaining the tension and provoking structural weaknesses Dave was able to grab two pawns for the exchange himself although he lost some of his advantage and one of his pawns pretty quickly when he re-captured a Black piece inaccurately.

On board 1 Andy and Ian were engaged in an interesting discussion of the Kalashnikov variation of the Sicilian Defence. This was pretty complicated and not easy to judge but the play was at least balanced with prospects for both sides.

Meanwhile on board 5 the players embarked on what would become a roller-coaster game where the advantage was held by both players at various different stages. This game was also a Sicilian Defence with Martin opting for a Classical set up against Les’ Schevenigan set up. That however was where the game started to take a dramatic turn. Martin seemed to gain a solid advantage before losing it and winding up in a poor position. However he rallied and seemed to have equalised again when Les then forced home a pawn promotion which compelled Martin to give up his queen for a rook. This game now looked over but it was the last game of the night to finish and there were still some twists and turns for the players and kibitzers alike to endure.

By the time Andy had polished off his smooth victory against Angel and his namesake on board 1 had suddenly forced a win against Ian Dave’s game had also taken a turn for the worse. Trying to play accurately and keep Gordon’s counter play under complete control Dave had gotten into a little bit of time trouble and his opponent was able to force a mini-crisis in the few moves before time control. Dave made a mistake and suddenly found himself a whole rook down though he still had some counter play in the form of a passed pawn on f7 and the constricted position of his opponent’s king on h8.

Hebden took the match and went 3-0 up when, after having to solve a few tricky ideas from Karim, Nick took full advantage of his extra material to force a win. Now the only question that remained was whether Dave and Martin could somehow salvage draws from their desperate situations.

With his extra rook in hand Gordon needed to consolidate and swap off more material in order to simplify the game and take the full point. This he did very effectively after the time control had been reached but he hadn’t yet removed the f-pawn from his position and whilst that remained Dave had some hope. Finally, Gordon got his passed queen’s-side pawns rolling but he’d overlooked a couple of very tricky resources and suddenly found himself facing a devilishly difficult position when Dave offered a further sacrifice of a knight.

Not accepting would have led to the h-file opening, possibly fatally, and so Gordon accepted the gift. However, this set up a different idea on the e-file that also threatened mate. There was a hard-to-spot refutation of Dave’s swindle attempt. Gordon missed it and even walked into a back rank trap that forced immediate resignation.

If that turn of events was surprising it was nothing compared to the drama that was about to unfold on board 5. Martin had a rook bishop and pawns against Les’ queen, knight and pawns. It should have been prosaic for Black but now both players had less than 5 minutes left to finish the game with and, even with all the extra material it wasn’t clear how he could make progress. Seeing that the clock was becoming a factor Martin offered a ‘cheeky’ draw, which Les rightly declined. The problem was of course that he was then psychologically obliged to play for a win no matter what happened.

As the clock ticked down Les and with his king and knight completely tied down by Martin’s remaining pieces, Les decided to give back his queen for Martin’s rook and play the minor piece ending with an extra pawn. Even with 30 minutes left on the clock it would have been a challenging endgame to win but with barely a few minutes it was nigh-on impossible. As he tried to make progress and play at high speed Les first lost his extra pawn and then, tragically, even blundered his knight away whereupon he handed a gift-wrapped whitewash to the hosts.

So Hebden Bridge took an ill-deserved game board points from their first match and sit somewhat embarssed at the top of the table after round 1. Here’s the final match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ vs Belgrave
A.Bak 1 — 0 I.Hunter
N.Sykes 1 — 0 K.Khan
D.Shapland 1 — 0 G.Farrar
A.Leatherbarrow 1 — 0 A.Gonzalez
M.Syrett 1 — 0 L.Johnson
5 — 0

Four of the games from this match appear in the viewer below (my thanks to Andy Bak and Nick Sykes for annotating theirs) along with Matthew Parsons win from the Brighouse vs. Huddersfield match.

In round 2 on October 5 Hebden will travel to Todmorden ‘B’ in a match that promises to be a tough one. Tod put up spirited resistance in this match up last season. On that night the Hebden players will also be able to eavesdrop on the first of the match ups between the big beasts this season as Todmorden ‘A’ host Halifax ‘A’. Belgrave host Brighouse in a match that might already be crucial in the relegation battle whilst Huddersfield host Halifax ‘B’.

On Monday this week League 2 kicked off with Hebden Bridge ‘B’ hosting Hebden Bridge ‘C’, a new ‘development’ team of juniors and new members to the club captained by John Kerrane who is tireless in his efforts to introduce new players to competitive chess. The result, a whitewash to the ‘B’ team may have been fairly predictable but the manner of it is of more importance when relatively fresh players are involved. Here is John’s review of proceedings:

In fact, the youngsters of the ‘C’ team gave a good account of themselves, but the greater experience of the more senior side was the telling factor. Of the games featuring juniors, the last to finish was on board 3, where Owen Buchan held his own into the closing stages of his game against the ‘B’ team’s Neil Bamford, until he fell into a tactical trap, and lost a piece. In the end, the scoreline was a fair reflection of the difference between the two teams.

The individual results were:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
M. Syrett 1 – 0 J. Kerrane
T. Sullivan 1 – 0 H. Hutchinson
N. Bamford 1 – 0 O. Buchan
A. Brown 1 – 0 L. Curry
D. Crampton 1 – 0 T. Dodd
5 – 0

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Yet another photo finish!

2014-15 Season Journal 11 Responses »

Mar 192015

Remember this entertaining end to one of the ski-cross races from last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi as three competitors fell and slid across the finishing line almost in unison. This season’s League 1 title race has been similarly close with no-one team able to assert their authority for long. Which of the final three contenders will step up to take the title this year?

It’s that time of year again! Calderdale League 1 now has just two rounds left to play following this week’s fixtures and there are still four teams in with a shot at the title.

On Monday night two of the title rivals got the opportunity to inspect each other’s credentials as they played at the same venue, though not against each other. At Todmorden Working Men’s Club, Todmorden ‘A’ began the night at the top of the table on board count (by one board!) as they hosted Courier ‘A’. Across the other side of the room Todmorden ‘B’, who are at the foot of the table and look doomed for the drop despite the doubtlessly spirited resistance they put up each match, took on the second placed side Hebden Bridge ‘A’.

Meanwhile over in Halifax, Halifax ‘A’ (the third team on the same number of match points at the top of the table) were playing host to Belgrave side in desperate need of a win to avoid occupying the other relegation spot at the end of the season. Finally, at Brighouse, Huddersfield were visiting in the hopes of capitalising on any slip ups from the top three as they lurked just two points behind them.

Your correspondent was at Todmorden, so let’s start by describing the action there. Hebden Bridge arrived with a good side but were unfortunately without the three strongest players who had helped them pull off the feat of winning two matches on the same night a few weeks ago. Despite this it looked like they would have enough to beat Tod ‘B’ Indeed the match got off to a great start for them (a hallmark of their recent form) when they won the first two boards to finish.

On board 3 Dave Shapland played patiently and solidly on the Black side of a Queens Gambit Declined Exchange Variation against Rob Collier. Rob has had some excellent results recently whilst Dave has been on poor form and so it seemed that the higher rated player was taking careful precautions not to be the victim of a giant killing. However, as the game progressed it became clear that it was becoming harder and harder for White to play actively and improve his position whilst Black had control of the half-open e-file and had successfully planted a knight on e4. All it took was one slip from Rob for Dave to pounce and sacrifice the knight on f2. This drew the White king into the open and Rob quickly realised that his goose was cooked.

Meanwhile on board 4, Todmorden’s Captain Dave Milton was giving his higher rated opponent John Allan a serious run for his money. In a Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Dave got and held onto a very promising looking position but his old enemy the clock, crept up on him and his standard of play diminished as his time crisis grew. Finally, John recovered from his poor start and went on to the attack and when a forcing sequence of moves netted him the exchange and a pawn, Dave resigned. It was 0 — 2 to Hebden.

With Todmorden ‘A’ playing just across the room it was too much of a temptation not to flit between the two matches especially as, at this stage of the evening, Hebden Bridge looked like they held winning advantages on boards 1 and 2 and were drawing at worst on board 5. The Todmorden versus Courier match looked like a much tenser affair although Tod took charge early on as Andrew Clarkson smote down Dave Colledge on board 5 with what looked like consummate ease. With such a large gap in ratings between the two players this was no surprise.

Around about the same time Pete Mulleady and John Morgan agreed a draw on board 3 leaving Todmorden a point to the good. However, on board 4 Carlos Gil Fresno was in horrendous time trouble against John Cawston and was at the added disadvantage of having to play a terribly complicated position. Cawston has been in excellent form recently so it looked like Courier might equalise there. The top two boards were close but on board 1 Todmorden’s Martin Hamer seemed to have built up quite a bit of pressure against Tony Slinger. On board 2 Phil Cook versus Dave Patrick looked like anybody’s game and was complicated enough to be a mystery.

Back in the Hebden Bridge match with Tod ‘B’ the visitor’s pace had slowed as on board 5 Richard Bedford and Martin Syrett agreed to a repetition in a queen and pawn ending that certainly appeared to be dead level. Unfortunately for Hebden though, things had gone wrong for Nick Sykes against Mike Huett on board 2. Nick had won a pawn and held a winning advantage I the endgame but he overlooked a cheapo and wandered into a knight fork that lost him a piece. Still, he had a pawn for the piece, looked like he might be able to win another and with so few pawns left on the board, Mike’s task was far from easy.

At least Hebden were able to secure the match win as Pete Leonard completed a dominating victory over Mick Connor. The home player essayed a line of the Catalan in which White sacrifices a pawn. On this occasion however it didn’t seem like he managed to get any compensation as Pete simply kept the pawn and advanced menacingly on the queen’s side. Connor defended tenaciously but eventually Hebden’s Captain broke through to seal the match win.

Back over at the Todmorden ‘A’ match the situation changed from being tight to being a landslide victory as they rattled off victories on the remaining boards in quick succession. First Martin Hamer’s pressure was finally too much for Tony Slinger to resist. Similarly on board two Phil Cook applied more and more pressure until Dave Patrick cracked and finally, on board 3 Carlos Gil Fresno not only survived the first time crisis but improved his position and then somehow defended another assault wave with his flag hanging to even beat John Cawston on time!!! This was a bonus result for Tod as a draw seemed the best Gil-Fresno could achieve. However the result left them with a superb final score line of 4.5-0.5.

The only game now remaining in play was the board 2 match between Mike Huett and Nick Sykes in the Tod ‘B’ vs. Hebden match. Nick, obviously furious with himself for blundering away a winning advantage carried on playing a piece down in the end game and it soon became clear Mike would have to play accurately to convert his material advantage because there were so few pawns left on the board. However, convert he eventually did to give his team’s score line a more respectable look.

Here is the score card for the Hebden match:

Todmorden ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘A’
M.Connor 0 — 1 P.Leonard
M.Huett 1 — 0 N.Sykes
R.Collier 0 — 1 D.Shapland
D.Milton 0 — 1 J. Allan
R.Bedford ½ — ½ M.Syrett
1½ — 3½

So, Tod ‘A’ and Hebden had done their job with Todmorden increasing their board points advantage over Hebden to two. Over at the Lee Mount Club in Halifax the hosts were also keeping themselves right in the hunt as they thrashed Belgrave 4½ — ½. Bill Somerset drew with Ian Hunter on board 1 but the rest of the games went to Winston Williams, Darwin Ursal, Richard Porter and Carlos Velosa in board order. Halifax’s league statistics are now identical to Hebden Bridge’s and these two teams play each other at Hebden on the 30th of March with the winner staying in the title race and the loser dropping out of it! These are the two form sides in the League right now so it should be an epic encounter.

The final match of this round of fixtures took place in Brighouse were the hosts faced a very strong Huddersfield side who were licking their wounds from two successive league defeats and desperate to stay within a couple of points of the leading trio. On board 1 Robert Broadbent did very well to draw with Leo Keely and on board 4 Paul Whitehouse did even better to draw with Dave Keddie but the other three games all went to Huddersfield with Mitchell Burke winning against Bruce Bendall on board 2, Matthew Parsons beating Nick Hudson on board 3 and Dave Tooley beating Ron Grandage on board 5.

Below are the games from the Hebden Bridge match against Todmorden ‘B’. My thanks as always to Pete Leonard and Nick Sykes for their annotations.

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Rusty minds grind back into action

2014-15 Season Journal No Responses »

Oct 032014

Rusty brain cogs stuttered back into action over the last few weeks as the Calderdale League begins again. Image used under Creative Commons terms and sourced from mclcbooks’ Flickr photostream

Over the last couple of Monday evenings the first round of a new Calderdale Evening Chess League season has begun as players up and down the valley tried to remember how to move the pieces, press the clock and record the moves after their summer holidays.

League 1 Report

Reigning League 1 champions Halifax ‘A’ hosted Brighouse, Courier ‘A’ hosted Belgrave and Todmorden ‘A’ and ‘B’ contested their two derby fixtures. We’ll come back to these matches in a moment. First of all let’s cover Hebden Bridge ‘A’s opening assignment against Huddersfield.

The match was originally due to be played on Wednesday night at Huddersfield but Hebden Bridge’s new captain Pete Leonard requested a swap of the home and away fixtures when it came to light a month or so before the match that, for one reason or other, Hebden were going to struggle to field a team on that Wednesday night. Huddersfield captain Dave Tooley generously granted the switch and so Huddersfield travelled to the Trades Club on the Monday night.

Last season the two sides swapped away wins but changes to both line ups in the close season meant that Huddersfield appeared to be firm favourites on paper this time. Matthew Parsons decided to switch his allegiances over the summer and represented Huddersfield rather than Hebden in this match. Add the other team members of Greg Eagleton, Mitchell Burke, Dave Keddie and Dave Tooley and that meant Hebden would be heavily out-graded on every board.

However, when Mitchell suddenly became unavailable on the night of the fixture Huddersfield donated a board to their hosts and the complexion of the tie changed. Could Hebden take anything from the match when given a point’s head start? As ever it was a very tight contest between these two sides with the Hebden players sensing the opportunity to upset their more powerful rivals.

Sadly the night did not get off to a very positive start for the hosts as the stand in captain on the night (Pete Leonard was on holiday) Dave Shapland, lost in fairly short order to Matthew Parsons who was promoted up to board 2 in Mitchell’s absence. These two have played each other many times and Dave has never won a game at the standard league time limits. Never the less he gave Matthew a stern test the last time he played with the White pieces and, possibly as a result, Matthew opted for the solid Caro-Kan Defence rather than the more volatile Sniper which has become his trade mark.

Dave eschewed some of the more manic lines he’s been known to play and chose instead the mainline which seemed to give him a solid position with a miniscule edge if anything at all. However, just as the game was poised to get interesting in the middle game Dave blundered a piece and resigned in dismay very shortly afterwards. His recent run of form does not bode well for the season to come.

Huddersfield had already erased their arrears and now the match would be decided over three boards. Next to finish was Andy Leatherbarrow’s game against Dave Keddie on board 3. This was not the most thrilling of encounters as Andy, who was conceding over 20 rating points to his opponent, sensibly charted a solid course through the opening against a very passive Black set up. Pieces were exchanged and the players quickly reached a queen and pawn ending which could have been continued but a draw was agreed almost immediately. Neither of the players was prepared to take a big risk and with the match in the balance that wasn’t an unreasonable decision.

Quite the contrary to this game the board 1 encounter was played in the most gungho, adrenalin-fuelled fashion. Andy Bak took on Greg Eagleton’s Najdorf in the most direct and critical way possible and Greg responded by steering the game into the infamous ‘Poisoned Pawn’ variation where White gives up his b2 pawn in exchange for speedy development and good attacking chances. The variation is known to be mind-bendingly complicated and this game was no exception as both players consumed time on their clocks early in the game trying to fathom what was going on.

The game was fascinating and the onlookers were greatly entertained but as is so often is the case in these types of game the clock ended up deciding the result. With only a minute or so left to make 8 or 9 moves, both players were in desperate straits and could easily have blundered. Andy ran out of time as he made his 36th move but in his haste to make time control himself Greg didn’t notice and also ran out of time. Both flags had fallen and the players weren’t entirely sure whether or not they’d made the requisite number of moves. Had they done so they might well have put the clocks back and continued but when they reconstructed their final moves it became clear that neither of them had made it and so they correctly and sportingly agreed on a draw. The match was level at two all.

This left the game between Nick Sykes and Dave Tooley which was a tight and tense affair for entirely different reasons. Both players were rock solid as Dave played the French Defence and Nick built up a pleasant space advantage which looked like it would place him in at no risk but would also be very difficult to convert. They could logically have agreed on a draw very early on in the evening but both played on each sensing that they might need to win the game to help their team gain a result.

On and on they went with the position simplifying down to rook, knight and pawn endgame. Dave managed to snatch a pawn but with the pieces still on and only a two to one pawn advantage a draw still seemed the most logical outcome. That result would have given Hebden a famous fighting draw but unfortunately Nick couldn’t manage to hang on in difficult circumstances. Fatefully he acquiesced to exchange knights when a rook exchange would have been more conducive to holding the balance. Dave’s king and rook were well placed to shepherd home the last remaining pawn and at the very end of the night Nick tipped his king and Huddersfield edged the tie 3 — 2.

Here is the final match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ vs. Huddersfield
A.Bak ½ — ½ G.Eagleton
D.Shapland 0 — 1 M.Parsons
A.Leatherbarrow ½ — ½ D.Keddie
N.Sykes 0 — 1 D.Tooley
M.Syrett 1 — 0 DEFAULT
2 — 3

The other fixtures in round 1 were similarly close which perhaps suggests some rustiness after the summer break. Halifax ‘A’ will sit atop the first 2014-15 league table of the season as they were the only side to win by more than a single point. They saw off Brighouse 3½ — 1½ but this hides the fact that they were donated two defaults and only tied the top three boards with a win a draw and a loss. Halifax don’t appear to be quite as strong as they were last season as they are missing Winston Williams but Bill Somerset and Darwin Ursal both played in this match contrary to rumours that they too would be absent this year.

Last season Todmorden ‘A’ only lost a single game when they had the home advantage. So, when they sported two new players who were strong enough to demote Andrew Clarkson to board 5 (!) it appeared that they would completely dominate their ‘B’ team. That didn’t happen though as Pete Mulleady could only manage a draw against Mike Connor and the new boys on boards 3 and 4 only mustered a half point between them. It was left to ‘A’ team stalwarts Hamer and Clarkson to secure victory by the narrowest possible margin and Tod ‘A’ have now already lost their first game at home this season.

Last but certainly not least Courier ‘A’ beat Belgrave 3 — 2 at home with Messrs Slinger (board 1) and Cawston (board 3) scoring victories in a new look line up for Courier as Robert Clegg and John Morgan were both absent. Belgrave meanwhile were without Malcolm Corbett but still managed to win on board 2 as Karim Khan beat Dave Patrick. Boards 4 and 5 were drawn.

All of this means that the top four teams from last season once again asserted their authority as Halifax are followed by Huddersfield, Todmorden ‘A’ and Courier ‘A’ whilst Hebden ‘A’, Brighouse, Belgrave and Todmorden ‘B’ appear to be in the fight to stay up. The next round of fixtures is on the 6th of October and the choice tie of the round appears to be Halifax’s visit to Todmorden ‘A’.

League 2 Newsflash

On Monday evening the League 2 teams got underway with Hebden Bridge ‘B’ and ‘C’ both in action. John Kerrane provides a brief report and results:

Hebden Bridge B opened their season with an away match against Courier B in Halifax, and came away 3½-1½ winners, aided largely by a double default by their opponents. The individual results were:

Courier ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’
J. Smith ½ — ½ A. Leatherbarrow
P.Jacobs 0 — 1 M. Syrett
R. Bottomley 1 — 0 D. Crampton
DEFAULT 0 — 1 R. Deravairere
DEFAULT 0 — 1 A.Brown
1½ — 3½

Meanwhile, Hebden Bridge C travelled to Todmorden WMC to take on Todmorden C, and were thrashed 4½-½. Only captain John Kerrane managed to salvage half a point and avoid a whitewash. The individual results were:

Todmorden ‘C’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
D. Milton ½ — ½ J. Kerrane
P. Logan 1 — 0 T. Sullivan
T. Webster 1 — 0 C. Greaves
R. Pratt 1 — 0 D. Leggett
B. Joyce 1 — 0 A. Connors
4½ — ½

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